Several emergency departments are taking action to improve patient care access and efficiency, from programs that focus on health inequity in emergency rooms to engineering tools that improve wait times.
Here are five recently introduced emergency care innovations.
1. Program to reduce return ER visits. Lafayette (La.) General Health System is implementing a pilot program to combat uncompensated care costs and prevent patients from returning to the ER, according to the Acadiana Advocate.
2. Engineering tools to combat ED wait times. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's children's hospital has partnered with industrial engineers at the university to develop tools that decrease ED wait times through acomputer algorithm based on past patient volumes, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report.
3. Project to advocate for patients' socioeconomic needs. Undergraduates at Stanford (Calif.) University in are working to combat health inequity in the ER by screening for legal and social needs and connecting them to local resources and programs, according to Stanford Medicine's blog Scope.
4. Peer recovery coaches. ER staff at St. Louis area hospitals are bringing in recovered addicts to serve as "recovery coaches" for opioid overdose patients, according to U.S. News & World Report.
5. Ambulance tracking software. Coastal Medical Transportation, a Yarmouth, Mass.-based private ambulance company, launched a new software company that allows ambulances to be requested, scheduled and tracked through a cloud-based program, according to a Cape Cod Times report.